A Beautiful Lie
by Datalicious
Summary: Set five months after the ending of Season 4 of Heroes. Sylar living with Peter, and everything was going just fine until something happens. Sylar loses control of himself and seeks help from Dr. Cal Lightman.
1. Prologue - Flawed Design

A/N: So, this is my try on what happens after season 4. I really miss the show and all I seem to have left is fanfiction, so here we go.

****Prologue****

Everyone thought that Sylar had died. Well, almost everyone. After Sylar had saved the world together with Peter, he had changed a little by then. He had found a new meaning for his life. He actually liked saving people. You could say that Gabriel Gray was still part of him. But he was neither Sylar or Gabriel anymore. Sylar Reborn or something like that.

Gabriel Gray had been a shy young man, just a casual watchmaker who minded his own business, generally didn't object to anything. He couldn't stand up for himself. But Sylar, he was completely different kind of story.

He still liked to call himself Sylar tough. He wasn't comfortable with calling himself Gabriel Gray. He wasn't that shy, and awkward boy anymore. He was better than that.

After Chandra Suresh had found him and told Gabriel about other people with special abilities, Gabriel knew he wasn't going to be ordinary anymore. Finally, he was the one who was special. That was what he had always wanted. But then after some tests, Suresh had said that Gabriel didn't have any special abilities. And that had made him so angry. But it really was just the beginning of what made Gabriel become Sylar.

He soon got the name of Brian Davis from Suresh without him knowing. Sylar killed Brian to get his Telekinetic ability. That was the first time Gabriel let his hunger take control and that was also the exact moment he became Sylar. He got that name from his watch, which is ironic considering that he is a watchmaker.

Oh, how wrong Suresh had been about Gabriel. He actually did have an ability of his own but it wasn't what kids read from comic books. It wasn't the kind he had dreamed of. Sylar had Inituitive Aptitude. The ability to understand how things work, what makes them tick, how to fix them. But the power had an unfortunate side effect. Sylar had the thirst to understand and find flaws in things. He wanted to have every ability he encountered. And the hunger for more power just grew.

The truth was that Sylar was nothing more than a serial killer, murdering people with abilities and taking them for himself by slicing open their heads and removing their brains. He had no control over what he was. But what was he now? After helping Peter save Emma, after saving the world from Samuel? He was going through an identity crisis. He wasn't sure what to do with himself. Even though he wasn't killing anymore, he was still calling himself Sylar.

What else could he call himself? Gabriel Gray? No. He just wasn't comfortable with that name anymore. Hadn't been for a while now. He wasn't that ordinary boy anymore. He never wanted to be ordinary again. Saving the world was his chance to renew himself. To be a new man. Saving someone had actually felt good. It made him happy. Peter seemed to be happy for Sylar too. But that was five months ago. A lot had happened after that.


	2. Chapter 1 - The Killing Type

****Chapter 1****

Sylar looks around himself in the dark hallway, and soon finds himself standing in front of a door; Dr. Cal Lightman's office. Not a soul was in the building, except for Cal Lightman and Sylar of course, as it was almost midnight and everyone had gone home already. Sylar had followed the good doctor here. Old habits die hard.

The Lightman Group clearly was a succesful company. He had heard a lot about the Lightman Group and their methods. Sylar wasn't exactly sure why he had come all the way from New York City, to here, Washington D.C. to visit Dr. Lightman. Maybe he thought that they would be able to help him. Help him become better. Maybe Lightman could help him with his identity crisis and the other problem Sylar was forced to deal with.

Cal Lightman had the ability tell if people are lying, but not why. Microexpressions and reading body languange were his specialty, not some ex-serial killer's problems. But the guy was still a genius psychologist.

Maybe they would help him because Primatech never really did. They didn't even try. They actually made him worse. They just locked him up and gave him some 'jolly good' drugs. Well, they did have a good reason for doing that - You know, killing people and stuff like that. But they also, in a way, created Sylar. Noah Bennet and Elle Bishop helped to complete Sylar.

Sylar was going to commit suicide, by hanging himself, just a few days after he had killed his first victim, Brian Davis. He felt remorse. But then Elle just suddenly came in his apartment and broke the damn rope with her powers. And then Sylar actually thought that the rope had broken on it's own somehow. He thought that Elle was some kind of an angel.

The two company agents, Elle and Noah were just observing poor Gabriel Gray, just waiting him to kill someone with special powers so they could see how he takes the power. After a while Elle, under Noah's orders, invited someone to join them. His name was Trevor.

He showed Sylar his power, but Sylar wasn't able to control himself. And it all just went to hell after that. The hunger took over. He killed Trevor because he was hungry for more powers. Elle and Noah turned him into a monster, and there was no going back.

After all the things he had done to the Petrelli family and everyone else, it was a surprise to Sylar that the one person who finally did save him was Peter. After the incident with Samuel, Sylar had stopped killing people... Well, at least for a while. For five months he hadn't killed anyone. He had replaced the hunger with saving people. And it really did feel fantastic. Peter had helped him become more than a mere serial killer. They had moved to an apartment together, so Peter could keep his eye on Sylar.

Peter had been a fantastic friend for him. Sylar actually considered Peter as his only friend. Best friend actually. Peter made Sylar happy. Everyone else was still a little bit careful around him. Five months wasn't enough time for them to consider Sylar as a human being. But Peter was so kind to him, while no one else was. Peter no longer saw the person Sylar was before. He only saw what he was now. Maybe those 5 years trapped in a telepathic world had something to do with it. The thought of that made Sylar smile.

But then something had happened, just a few days ago. Something bad. Someone attacked him. He had been so angry. Sylar was forced to defend himself, he felt that he had no other choice but to kill the guy. Even though he knew that he wouldn't really die if someone killed him. Yes, it would hurt like a bitch but he would eventually get up. The attacker was 173cm tall guy, with dark brown hair and greenish eyes, who apparently knew Sylar somehow. But then Sylar killed him. It was self-defence, really.

But does it really count as self-defence if you then continue with slicing his head open and are about to study his brain to see if he has any special powers, because apparently you aren't quite as ready to let go of your old habits as you thought you would be?

Unfortunately the guy didn't even have any powers to offer for Sylar. He was just an ordinary human being. Sylar couldn't believe he had done that. Again. After all these months. After that Sylar had backed off and ran away, leaving the body to an empty alley. He had looked at his bloody hands and couldn't believe what he had just done. He couldn't go back to Peter, and that was his reason for being here. Too many problems and self-control issues.

Sylar knocks lightly at the door and steps in. There's a man behind the desk, who was probably in his mid-40s and had a brown hair. He was Dr. Cal Lightman. The man he was here to see. Cal looks towards Sylar. "Do I know you?" The man asks and Sylar recognizes the british accent in his voice. "Cause you look really familiar" Dr. Lightman continues as he stands up from his chair, while the strange dark-haired man shuts the door behind him and walks closer to the good doctor.

As Sylar moved closer, Cal watched his every move. It was not very hard to read his body language. He clearly had a good reason for coming here. He seemed like he was on the verge of losing all the self-control that was left in him. And Cal was sure that he had seen the man somewhere before but couldn't place his face. "Who are you?" Cal asks another question.

"You tell me" Sylar says while forming a smile on his face, though he still wasn't sure if he had made the right decision by coming here.


	3. Chapter 2 - The right to go insane

****Chapter 2 – The right to go insane****

They were just sitting in front of each other in Cal Lightman's office. Cal wasn't sure what to say. He had heard a lot of strange things in his career but this one, this story, just takes the cake. People with super powers? A new stage of evolution?

He wasn't sure if the man sitting in front of him was being serious. Or if he was completely bonkers. Well, he actually might be. Being a serial killer and all. Actually the FBI had categorized Sylar as a suspected serial killer. His signature was slicing his victims heads open horizontally at the center of their skull and removing their brain. Some victims were pinned to walls, frozen or beaten. But no one really knew his motive for his murders, because there didn't seem to be a pattern. At least not one that would make sense to the FBI.

It really didn't take long for Cal to recognize Gabriel Gray, or Sylar, as he likes to call himself. No one has had the opportunity to study him before. Also, the FBI thinks the man is dead anyway so no one has been exactly looking for him. Cal knew that he would be insane if he was to pass up an opportunity like this.

"Let's say that I'm gonna believe you, but let's not pretend that what you are telling doesn't sound absolutely bonkers." He stares Sylar right in the eyes. Maybe he should be afraid. But for some reason he wasn't. Mr. Gray here seemed to be calm. At the moment he didn't seem very threatening either. Cal really was willing to give Sylar all the psychiatric help he wanted. Though for a second Cal wasn't exactly sure if Sylar would let him go after this.

"I assure you, Dr. Lightman, everything I've told you about my world couldn't get any less real that it already is. I'm willing to demonstrate my powers" Sylar assures the doctor, and leans back on the armchair he's sitting in, which was actually really comfortable and soft to sit in. The british psychiatrist really seemed to know how to make his patients feel comfortable and safe. For a moment there Sylar almost forgot all that had happened in the last few days. He looks towards Dr. Lightman again and sees the look on his face. He still seemed to be somewhat skeptical about the things that Sylar had told him about, but he really couldn't blame him. He was only human. There was also something else in his eyes. A little bit of worry but most of all, curiosity.

Not many people had expressed worry towards Sylar in his lifetime. Sylar's real father killed his mother when he was a young boy, and Sylar didn't really even remember her anymore. His adoptive father wasn't much of a parent either, but his adoptive mother still had cared for him in her own way. Well, that was until Sylar told her about his powers and accidentally kills her while just trying to defend himself and stop his mother from stabbing him with a pair of scissors. After that no one had really cared about him much.

Of course then there was Elle. A girl who basically helped create Sylar. They had developed feelings for each other back then when he was still using the name of Gabriel Gray. Elle wasn't supposed to care about him, her only job was to get Sylar kill someone. But she was only doing that under Noah Bennet's orders. Some time after that they saw each other again.

They had even started a relationship with each other for a while after all that they had been through. But then again, she had always had her own problems. With Elle being mentally unstable, homicidal and all - it really was no surprise that she had fallen for someone like Sylar.

After having a romantic fling with Elle for a while, Sylar had realized that he couldn't change from the monster he was. The last time Sylar had seen Elle, they were teleported to Coste Verde beach. They had kissed, and Sylar explained that they were both "damaged" goods" and that they would never really change. Then a few moments later, Elle had her skull sliced open. Sylar then burned her corpse, and again another person who had cared about Sylar was dead. Well, at least he had said goodbye to her.

But then Peter came along. Peter was now the only person who cared about Sylar. Everyone else was suspicious and afraid of him. He had killed a lot of people, so who really could blame them for being afraid? Sylar didn't know why Dr. Lightman would care about his well-being. Cal seemed to know who Sylar was and what he had done. By now, most people would be trying to escape and get away from him. But the doctor on the other hand, he seemed to be very intrigued by Sylar. But what the doctor didn't know was why Sylar had killed all those people. Well, not the real reason anyway.

Sylar stands up, while still looking directly at the doctor. He then moves his right hand towards Cal's desk, and suddenly it starts shaking. Cal just stares the process silently as his desk slowly starts floating in the air and not a single item on the desk moves at all. He was amazed. "I really hope you didn't put something on my tea" he says and hoped that he wasn't going crazy. His table then descends back to it's original place. "That's not really how I do things" Sylar assures him with a grin on his face as he sits back to the armchair.

Cal turns back towards Sylar and wondered where all of this had been his entire life. Suddenly he just wanted to know absolutely everything. "I'm willing to help you, but only if you're willing to tell me how you ended up in _here_. We both need to participate in getting you all the help you need and want."

..

The time seemed to flow around them. The time was a little over 2 o'clock in the morning, but thankfully they had plenty of time before the other people in Cal's team would arrive. Sylar told the doctor _everything_. Starting from Chandra Suresh, Primatech, Elle Bishop, his power... up until this moment right here.

Sylar takes a deep breath after just staring at emptiness for a few minutes. Cal was surprisingly patient with him. Like he was studying him. "You know, i just started wondering... you really have never heard about anything like this before? Are you sure? You haven't heard about strange things happening to other people?" He just had to be sure. Though he didn't know what he wanted to be sure of. Maybe he needed to know that the doctor didn't have any ulterior motive? But then again what would that even be.

Cal shakes his head. "This is all completely new to me." He tells the truth. He noticed the expression on Sylar's face change a few times. Sylar was suspicious of him, a little bit angry and now finally calm again. Sylar stays silent for a minute before quickly leaning forward towards the doctor.

"I told you about saving the world with Peter,and how that was the turning point in my life, right? Well this girl Claire has this ability to rapidly heal from any injury. Basically she will never die. I have that ability too. After all that happened, there were so many television crews and cameras. Claire, she jumped from a very high construct and then she just healed in front of all those people." Sylar tells him, while wondering why Cal didn't see it on TV or read it from any papers, like the rest of the world.

But then again, Sylar wasn't even sure if there had even been any kind of TV broadcast about it at all. He didn't even remember seeing any news articles on the paper. After that day for five months he had never heard any human say anything about what Claire did. She had even visited Peter and Sylar on a weekly basis. But for some reason Sylar hadn't really thought about it much. It was like his memory was being constantly suppressed by someone. It was like someone had made the whole world forget, and was trying to make Sylar forget too - until now.

"I know that I'm not very good at checking the latest news on time, but you said that was five months ago. I should have heard about it." Cal smirks but as he looks towards Sylar, he can't help but see how worried and restless Sylar looks like all of a sudden. "What's the matter?"


End file.
